[ale] Losing stability

[Charles Shapiro]

Nope. And I'm aware of the beep codes for POST. These don't sound anything
like that. They're truly random.

This machine was never overclocked and never ran windows.

-- CHS

On 10/30/06, Matt Kubilus <mattkubilus at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Those beeps aren't random, they usually indicate some sort of
> diagnostic message particular to your motherboard/BIOS.
>
> Also, your RAM is most certainly bad.  It's the cheapest easiest thing
> to swap for sure.  Do you have any systems running the same kind that
> you could swap test?
>
> I would say to try swapping in this order, easiest(cheapest?) to hardest:
>
> * RAM
> * PowerSupply
> * Video Card (believe it or not, especially w/Winders)
> * CPU
> * HardDrive
> * Motherboard
>
> Have you ever overclocked this system?
>
> -Matt
>
> On 10/30/06, Christopher Fowler <cfowler at outpostsentinel.com> wrote:
> > I've written off older hardware because I've lost old hardware recently.
> > It just seems like PC these days aren't able to go much past 3 or 4
> > years.  A troubling fact.
> >
> > Could be the following:
> >
> > 1.  Bad CD drive (Remove it)
> > 2.  Bad hard drive (Try a new one)
> >
> >
> > I had a machine behave like this and the conclusion was that it was a
> > bad disk.  The problem was that the disk holding swap was bad and when
> > the drive kept retrying the system would appear to "hang".  Sometimes
> > even reboot.  One idea is to not use swap and force everything in
> > memory.  Not sure if 512mb is enough these days with GNOME and other
> > crap running.
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 2006-10-30 at 09:25 -0500, Charles Shapiro wrote:
> > > My main box at home is having Serious Troubles.  On startup it often
> > > will hang (no screen output) with the CD light lit steady until I
> > > press & hold the "off" switch to retry. Other behaviors include
> > > appearing to start up and then emitting random beeps through the
> > > speaker with no screen output, or giving random core dumps on various
> > > scripts in /etc/init.d.  I've also experienced  spontaneous reboots
> > > and random hangs/program failures in X windows.  The "memory speed"
> > > number given in the initial startup screen sometimes changes from
> > > boot-up to boot-up as well.  The system is a home-brew about 4 years
> > > old and lightly used; leadtek WinFast K-series MB, athlon chip, cheap
> > > simple video card, single 512 MB DRAM stick. Processor temperatures
> > > appear to be within acceptable ranges, at least according to the
> > > "syshealth" part of the BIOS. I've enabled the full memory test in the
> > > POST, but so far that hasn't picked up any problems.
> > >
> > > I'm thinking that the problem is either memory or motherboard. I've
> > > removed, air-blasted, and re-seated the memory stick in a new slot
> > > without change in behavior. At  this point I'm considering getting
> > > some new memory and, if that doesn't change the behavior, replacing
> > > the motherboard.
> > >
> > > Does this seem reasonable? The clock appears steady, so I'm assuming
> > > the BIOS battery is OK, but perhaps that's a factor?
> > >
> > > -- CHS
> > >
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> >
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> >
>
>
> --
> Don't be a pioneeer.  A pioneer is the guy with the arrow through his
> chest.  -- John J. Rakos
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